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David Banks (@da_banks) on Open Source Software

Thursday, July 17, 2014

The average person doesn’t have a use for complicated backend server software. They do need a social media network that isn’t out to exploit them for profit. The failure of the F/OSS community to come out with a polished, user-friendly, and user-run social media network, while Facebook run’s on open source server software is confounding. This arrangement turns inexcusable when those same people demand that other’s learn to code if they want to take full advantage of what F/OSS has to offer. At the very least, F/OSS usability and popular technological literacy should meet halfway.

Open source software is a topic of particular interest for me. Back in 2008, I stopped running Windows, opting instead to use Linux as my primary OS. By 2011, I had ditched Windows altogether (I've never been a Mac guy).

In theory, open source is a beautiful ideal. In reality, the finished products that come from the open source community feel... well, unfinished. Open source is the epitome of unrealized potential.

But is that inherent in F/OSS's nature? Or is it a problem of culture (in other words, something that can be fixed)? David Banks explores.